Trying to turn over a new leaf

Aberlourj

Hi,

I have found it very difficult to talk about money with friends family and even my partner over the last few years.

When I became a student in 2008, I started trying life on my own, and I was always scared to ask for help from my family. I instantly got an overdraft of 1,250 from Natwest (this ended up being written off with no communication required) but after a few years of being a student I got a Salaried job in my line of work which caused a catastrophic breakdown of my finances resulting in:

- multiple pay day loans with different creditors and abandonment of all loans
- abandonment of a Barclays account with a 1,100 overdraft
- abandonment of a Barclays loan of 4,000
- ended up with one CCJ for over 4,000 with the university
- 1 CCJ for a pay day loan
- 1 CCJ for a phone contract
- 1 CCJ for a credit card

Now, many years in the future, I have finally decided to stop burying my head in the sand and take responsibility.

So far I have:

- Set up payment plan with 4 pay day lenders.
- repaid one CCJ and have plans in place for the other 3
- Set up repayment plans with numerous other lenders that used the same debt collection company.

Very recently I found out that I may be eligible to make affordability complaints to some pay day lenders, two of which I had been borrowing money from for over a year, so I have started those processes.

With my head in the sand, things seemed easy prior to my decision to start dealing with these debts and now I am starting to worry.

- I havent contacted Barclays about my loan and overdraft from 2013, they havent contacted me other than sending a letter to offer a refund. This letter was sent to an address I had not given them, but I have moved to.

Do I contact barclays to offer a repayment? Or do I leave it as the debt will become statute barred next year anyway?

Do I continue with the pay day loan complaints? I may need bank statements from Barclays to do so, and I worry that will stop the debt being statute barred! Please help if you can!

Thank you,

BabyStepper

I have no idea what advice to offer, just wanted to bump up your post.

Good luck.

Willing2Learn

Hi Chris and welcome to the forum

Firstly, sorry about the delay in anyone getting back to you. Your thread somehow slipped through the net...

As far as debts being Statute Barred (SB). Case law states that the clock starts from the 'cause of action' and not from the last payment or acknowledgement of the debt. The 'cause of action' is considered to be the date the account has been defaulted. Therefore the accounts would only become Statute Barred (SB), six years from the date of default (and so long as you have not made any payments to the account or acknowledged the debt during the intervening years, as that would reset the clock)


Hope this helps

Edit: Just reading back what I have typed, I am not sure that I have made things clear. DebtCamel have explained in a much more understandable text. They explain the cause of action term and clearly set out when an account would be considered SB.

DebtCamel state that an account would be considered SB if you can say YES to all the following four points:

1. it had been more than six years since you last made a payment; and
2. the creditor has a cause of action more than six years ago; and
3. you haven’t acknowledged the debt in writing during this time; and
4. the creditor hasn’t already gone to court for a CCJ.

Here is the link for the full DebtCamel article:
https://debtcamel.co.uk/statute-barred-debt/

Kitten868

So if you wait another year or so it will all be written off? It's your call. They have the wrong addresses so you'd have to be on the ball with keeping an eye out for CCJs. But if you were into looking into it all now you could try reduced settlements and could potentially solve it all with the pay day refunds. It's your choice as to what you want to do.

Willing2Learn

Kitten868 wrote: »

So if you wait another year or so it will all be written off?

When an account becomes Statute Barred, it is not written off. The debtor remains liable, even though the account cannot be enforced. And the SB date goes from the 'cause of action' and not from when the OP last contacted Barclays about the accounts. The 'cause of action' for the OPs loan and overdraft, is the date these accounts were defaulted.